Waves are disturbances that propagate throush space and time. Classically, they travelled through a medium, disturbing the particles but not changing their mean position. Electromagnetic waves/particle-waves need no medium; they are disturbances in their respective fields.
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Refraction of light and frequency dependence
Why do higher frequency waves refract more, both ocean waves and light waves? Also why is energy stored in the frequency as opposed to the wavelength.
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170 views
Counting electromagnetic modes in a rectangular cavity and boundary conditions
The electric field in a cubical cavity of side length $L$ with perfectly conducting walls is
$E_x = E_1 \cos(n_1 x \pi/L) \sin(n_2 y \pi/L) \sin(n_3 z \pi/L) \sin(\omega t)$
$E_y = E_2 \sin(n_1 x ...
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80 views
Critical bathymetric profile to maximize surge and minimize breaking?
Reading about storm surge, I found it fascinating that the gradual slope of the Gulf Coast of Florida resulted in a much higher storm surge but much lower energy release in breaking waves.
Is there ...
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1answer
64 views
How does one determine whether an object will make an EM wave refract in a qualitative way?
for example, i have a vague notion that the actual answer is that the permittivity and permisivity are different in each different material, so all waves refract at every boundary, but we only call it ...
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1answer
295 views
Ultrasonic wave through air
I am not a physicist but I am extremely interested in this area.
The simple version of my question is:
"What is the maximum range of an ultrasonic wave traveling through air?"
Now, I know it depends ...
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70 views
Standing Waves: finding the number of antinodes
A string with a fixed frequency vibrator at one end forms a standing wave with 4 antinodes when under tension T1. When the tension is slowly increased, the standing wave disappears until tension T2 is ...
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221 views
De broglie equation
What is the de Broglie wavelength?
Also, does the $\lambda$ sign in the de Broglie equation stand for the normal wavelength or the de Broglie wavelength? If $\lambda$ is the normal wavelength of a ...
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64 views
Slinky reverb: the origin of the iconic Star Wars blaster sound
This is a fun problem that I came across recently, which I'm posting here for your delectation. We all love a good slinky: they can be used for all sorts of fun demos in physics. One example is the ...
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52 views
What's the difference between exchange spin wave and magnetostatic spin wave?
So far I've heard of three kinds of spin waves
Magnetostatic spin waves (MSW)
Dipole-exchange spin waves (DESW)
Exchange spin waves (ESW)
What's the difference?
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75 views
Physical difference between two different attenuation coefficient functions
The attenuation of a wave through a medium can be modeled by the Beer-Lambert Law using an attenuation coefficient. If $I$ is the intensity, and $I_r$ is a reference intensity, then what is the ...
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38 views
Can we compute the magnitude of the stress caused by sound waves on a wall?
As a follow up to this question, Could we really compute the magnitude of the stress caused by sound waves on a wall? If so, How do we do that?
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79 views
After quantization of electron vibrations, do we need electrons anyway?
The title question is not ment in a general context, but one in which goes to the plasmon theory.
In that case, how is are the statistics (boson vs. fermions) of plasmons determined?
And is there an ...
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172 views
How to predict sea waves length/height?
I would like to know which are the best methods used to predict sea waves characteristics (particularly predict length/height given water depth and wind speed) and how are they used. My major is ...
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37 views
Standing Waves in Flutes
How do the waves produced in flutes have a wave characteristic while maintaining a velocity that allows them to travel to out ear? If it were simply a standing wave I'd imagine that they would ...
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45 views
Longitudinal EMAG wave?
I'm reading about optical waveguide analysis, and often come across the terms "transverse electric mode" vs. "transverse magnetic mode". As I unerstand, it means that the electric/magnetic field has ...
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47 views
Fourier Transform of ribbon's beam Electric Field
I have a monochromatic ribbon beam with $E(x)e^{i(kz-\omega t)}$ being the electric field's amplitude. I want to show that the lowest order approximation in terms of plane waves is
...
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209 views
How to calculate the intensity of the interference of two waves in a given point?
There are two different point sources which produce spherical waves with the same power, amplitude, ω, wavenumber and phase.
I can calculate the intensity of each wave in a point:
$$
I_1 = P / (4 ...
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36 views
How do you super impose two or more signals to occupy a fix area of space with the resultant summed wave?
Is it possible to super-impose two or more signals all sent from different directions as a standing wave with the resulting summed wave occupying a fix area of space that is also a complex area?
Do ...
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43 views
What phenomenon is responsible for the evolution pattern of waves created by waterfalls?
I have been fascinated lately by the pattern of the waves created by a waterfall in my town. Specifically, the pattern shows a gradual decrease in the density of the waves as they travel away from ...
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102 views
Behavior of wave at boundary
Firstly, how is "density" of wave formulated as?
Secondly, when wave, travelling in less density medium, meets with the boundary that has higher density medium next to, reflected parts of the wave ...
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0answers
121 views
How to derive a multi-reflection echo from a given single-reflection “trace”
Consider a one-dimensional semi-bounded "ray" (or thin "cylinder") of stratum (or just any homogeneous substance) which has several "features" along it's length (say, thin films). Consider a wave that ...
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233 views
Depth of sea and point at which waves break
Following up on this answer, is the point at which waves break on the sea shore a guide to the depth of the sea at that point? Could it indicate eg hidden rocks?
Explain the direction of waves on sea ...
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118 views
Reflected electromagnetic wave relation
If incident electromagnetic wave is given as:
$$\begin{align*}E_i&=A_e \cos(\omega t + bz)\\
H_i&=A_h \cos(\omega t + bz)\end{align*}$$
What would be relation for REFLECTED wave?
Does it ...
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0answers
61 views
Reorienting a sensor axes according to particle displacement directions
Consider a sensor which is located inside the solid substance. This sensor is capable of detecting the substance oscillations along each of the three axes (usually orthogonal, but generally, any ...
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27 views
Historical aspect of wave theory of light
Huygens thought light as a wave. Wave is a propagation of physical disturbance. We now know that light is electromagnetic field. Electric and magnetic field fluctuates here. What Huygens really ...
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19 views
Counting the modes of the vector potential in a coulomb gauge
With a view to quantising the EM field, consider a classical free field in the absence of charge and currents, we can take a coulomb gauge, $\phi=0, \partial_kA_k=0$. The physical fields in terms of ...
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13 views
Minimum thickness of bubble ensuring max reflectance
A soap bubble has index of refraction of 1.33. What minimum thickness of this bubble will ensure max reflectance of normally incident 530 nm light?
Ans is 99.6, but how do I get that?
I am ...
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28 views
The interference of waves and factors that affect cancellation?
If you had two repeated disturbances on the surface of a water, I know interference will occur. However, if I move the two sources of disturbances closer together, why would the 'gaps' between each ...
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0answers
96 views
Sum of intensity of reflected and transmitted waves
The given state:
Let $\psi$ be a wave that passes from medium $a$ to medium $b$.
Let $A$ be the amplitude of $\psi$.
Let $R$ be the amplitude ratio of the reflected wave $\psi_r$ and the original one, ...
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66 views
How to get electromagnetic wave from transmitted power?
If a question states that a transmitter emits 90W power, is it meant as average power density or Poynting vector magnitude?
Is it somehow possible to deduce E(z;t) and H(z;t) from it?
Electric ...
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0answers
204 views
Intensity of the diffraction pattern of the double slit
I am trying another approach for my last unanswered question. (Bounty still on for 3 days. Anyone? Please?) Note that this is not the same question but a greatly simplified version concerning a much ...
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61 views
Can a wave propagate in an elastic fluid in the absence of volume forces?
A motion (wave) $\mathbf{x}: \mathcal{B}_0 \times [t_0,t_1] \to \mathcal{E}:$ such that
$q-o = \mathbf{x}(p,t)=(p-o)+\mathbf{a}_0 cos(\mathbf{k}_0\cdot(p-o) - \omega_0 t)$
can propagate in an elastic ...
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112 views
What is the electric field part of an EM wave? Radiation field or the induction field?
Look at this image:
I wonder if the electric field is from the induction field from a vibrating electron or the radiation field? If it is from the radiation field, as I suppose, than can someone ...
